Barcelona in seventh heaven

Madrid: Barcelona got back on track in the La Liga by overwhelming Valencia on Sunday with four different players scoring in the first 24 minutes of a 7-1 rout.

Frenkie de Jong opened the scoring in the third minute, Ferran Torres added to the lead in the eighth, Raphinha found the net in the 14th and Fermín López struck in the 24th at Montjuic stadium.

López added the fifth in first-half stoppage time as Barcelona ended the first half with a 5-0 lead.

Valencia got their goal with Hugo Duro in the 59th before Barcelona scored again with Robert Lewandowski in the 66th and an own-goal by César Tárrega in the 75th.

The victory moved Barcelona within three points of second-placed Atletico Madrid and seven points off leader Real Madrid, who won 3-0 at Valladolid on Saturday with a hat-trick by Kylian Mbappé. Atletico were held 1-1 by Villarreal on Saturday.

“We hadn’t been doing well in the league and we needed to bounce back with a victory like that,” López said.

Barcelona were coming off victories in the Champions League, Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, but had been winless in their last four league games.

Hansi Flick became the second-fastest coach to reach 100 goals with Barcelona, who have now scored 101 goals in 32 games in all competitions under the German. Helenio Herrera reached the mark in 31 matches in the 1950s. Luis Enrique and Tito Vilanova each needed 34 games to

reach the 100 mark.